The Chosen of the Winds
by SummerstormDancer
Summary: Barb has never felt at home in the village of Northolt. But even in her grandest dreams, she never imagined what would happen to her. Now, chosen by one of the four greatest mages in the kingdom as his heir, she must learn not only great magic but also much of people. But all is not as it seems in Augury's high court, and the heirs may be in more danger than any of them know.
1. Chapter 1: The Choosing

**Chapter One: The Choosing**

If someone were to look in on the little village of Northolt, it would seem a festive place. The youth were dressed in brightly colored frocks, and their elders watched with amused eyes. However, if one took a closer look, it would become apparent that more than a simple celebration was occurring. The first clue might be that the brightly-dressed youth were all but silent; watching and waiting for something to occur. Or it might be the lack of children at the "festival". Or perhaps the lack of any of the typical entertainments one should see: games, food, musicians, dancing.

If, however, the one looking in on this little town was from the land of Augury, they would know immediately what was occurring. It was the Choosing, the day that all young mages received their familiar and became capable of truly learning to use their gifts. In the larger cities, it was said, the four Great Ones might even choose mages of great skill to become their own, but that was for city-folk, not villagers.

There would be a true festival after the ceremony, one where most of the mages would be congratulated, and most of the ungifted would be comforted. Most, but not all. One girl, in particular, knew that there would be no one to celebrate with, whether she gained a partner or not.

Barb smoothed the dress, watching the other girls fuss over their hair, jewelry, and makeup. 'Fools,' she thought to herself, 'the Great Ones don't choose you for your face.' She wasn't even sure why she was here, really. Unlike the others in the village, she seemed to lack even the slightest hint of a gift. Every attempt to cast a spell either fizzled and did nothing or caused an explosion. Her one attempt at a potion had left a crater in the tester's floor. Everyone, herself included, knew there was no way she would be among the chosen.

Barbara, or Barb as she preferred to be called, had never fit in to the little town of Northolt. Her mother had been a traveler of some sort, and had, according to sniggering townsfolk, dropped her at the inn as an infant and went back to whatever life she had. Barb didn't look like the towns-people. The girls of the town tended towards short and voluptuous. Barb was as tall as a boy and, as others would remind her, nearly as flat as one. Her hair and eyes were fair, theirs dark. She was fast, they were slow. She shot a bow, those that fought at all used staves or fists. Her magic was unpredictable and explosive, theirs as steady as a stone. She dreamed of adventure and travel, they of husbands and homesteads. The list seemed endless, especially when it came between her and any potential friends. She was just "Bizarre Barbie" to them, someone to laugh at.

Barb was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of bells, signaling that the first Great One had arrived. Unable to help herself, Barb strained along with the others to see him. As Northolt was primarily an earth-natured town, the first Great One would be Cephas, Lord of the Stones.

Soon, he came into view. Cephas was a dark man, broad of shoulder and hip. Barb heard the village girls sigh as they caught a glimpse of him. She rolled her eyes. Although Cephas was certainly attractive by the standards of this village, she just didn't see the appeal, something about him frightened her, made her want to withdraw. As he came closer, it became apparent that he did not come alone. Behind him trailed the crowd of beings who would become the familiars to the mages that today waited for the choosing. The ones closest to the Lord were the lower earth-aligned creatures of magic: gnomes. These would be paired with the most powerful of the earth-aligned mages of the generation throughout the land. It was said that there were other, more powerful, magical creatures who would become the partners of those chosen as one of the Great One's own, but the people of Northolt dismissed these as the fairy tales they were. Behind the gnomes were the more common animals, the "wise" cousins to everyday animals which could be seen in a forest or a home. Bears and horses, wolves and beavers, bulls and deer and cats, they far outnumbered the magical beasts.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Cephas arrived in the village square. The wise beasts scattered, finding their mage and claiming them. Slightly more than half of the townspeople received a partner in the form of a wise earth beast. Then, Cephas looked out among the people. "John, son of James. Like your father before you, your magic's roots run deep. Step forward to meet your new partner," Cephas intoned, voice deep as a cave.

John, the headman's son, stepped forward with his chest puffed out. He was met by a cheerful-looking gnome. The gnome bowed his head, and John returned the gesture. A flash of green-brown magic swirled around the two.

"The bond is sure. Know that this power gives you the responsibility to care for people and land should it be necessary." Cephas spoke.

"I know, Great One" John replied, sounding far humbler than Barb had ever heard.

Cephas took one last long, slow look over the crowd of young men and women. "All who are mine have been chosen from this group. Your magic is deeply rooted. Allow a strong bond with your partner to grow, for yours is the element which is dependable. Go forth and rejoice, Children of Earth!" he commanded, before turning and leaving the square. Those who had been chosen began to slowly filter out of the square.

Barb watched as John broke away from the rest of the group. "So, no partner eh, Barbie?" he taunted.

"It's Barb," she replied, voice tense from keeping a hold of her temper.

"Well, _Barb_, it's hardly a surprise. Everyone knows you don't belong in a mage's circle." John replied, crude amusement in his voice. The gnome at his side giggled. "More like on your back like your whore of a mother," he continued.

Barb couldn't control it any more. In a blur the townsfolk could barely see, she punched John in the face, hard. "Don't you ever say anything like that again!" she hissed. A rough breeze seemed to blow only around the two of them.

John just gave her a dark look. "You'll pay for that once the Choosing's over." He growled out, before turning and stalking off. Barb heard the whispers and giggles from the others, but ignored them.

An hour later, the bells rang again, as Morgan, Lady of the Seas, approached with her train which included naiads, and various wise fish, dolphins, whales, seals, and turtles. Wise fish could cross land due to their inherent magic. The lady Morgan was pale with dark hair, soft and voluptuous. Three of the townspeople were chosen by wise beasts of water, and none were strong enough water mages to become the partner of a magical creature.

After they were chosen, Morgan spoke up. "All who are mine have been chosen from this group. Your magic sings truly. Join as one with your partner, for yours is the element which connects all life. Go forth and rejoice, Children of Water!" Like Cephas before her, she left. Like those chosen by earth, the chosen of water trickled out of the square in a small group.

An hour after Morgan left, the bells rang again, signaling the approach of Fiammetta, Lady of the Flame. She was an athletic looking redhead. In her train were salamanders, and wise foxes, serpents, lions, and coyotes. Only two of those waiting were chosen, leaving Barb among the nearly half that still remained unpartnered. 'Maybe the townspeople were right.' Barb thought to herself, as only Zephyr, Lord of the Sky, remained to choose; no one who lived in this village had been chosen by one of his in the memory of the oldest of the elders. 'No. I won't believe it unless he, too, passes me by. I will prove them wrong!' she thought.

Fiammetta spoke up, indicating that this part of the choosing was complete. "All who are mine have been chosen from this group. Your magic burns brightly. Forge a strong bond with your partner, for yours is the element which brings change. Go forth and rejoice, Children of Fire!" She left, followed by the newly chosen.

Barb stood with the others who were unchosen. One of them spoke up. "I don't know why we're still waiting here. We all know that we won't be Chosen."

"You will wait so as to not insult the last Great One" snapped one of the elders who were listening.

As if mentioning Zephyr had summoned him, the bells rang again. Barb gasped slightly to see him, feeling an inexplicable attraction. While Cephas had been dark and broad, Zephyr was fair and slender. While Cephas's muscles had been bulky, Zephyr's were the whipchord of an endurance runner. His train consisted of sylphs, followed by more birds then Barb could name. Almost as soon as silence had fallen after the bells, he was in the clearing.

None of the wise birds stirred from their places. Barb resigned herself to becoming one of the common working-class that those without a gift were assigned to. 'Well, at least I can make a living as the town huntress…' she thought, for she had always been able to make her way by her bow.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Zephyr's clear, strong voice rang out over the assembled youths. "Barbara, daughter of Henry. Yours is one of the strongest Wind gifts I have seen in many a century. Come forth, and take your place at my side!" he called, his clear eyes the color of the summer sky meeting her own. Shocked whispers broke out among the crowd, for all knew what that call meant. All the old legends were true. Barb would not be partnered with a wise beast, or even one of the lower wind elementals. She would return with the Great One to the capital, and there be paired with a higher elemental creature.

For a moment, Barb stood there, wondering who had been called. 'Wait, I'm the only Barbara in this town… does that mean…' she thought, still standing in shock.

Zephyr let out a small smile. "Well, little one? Are you coming?" he asked, laughter clear in his voice.

Barb took one step, then another, until she found herself standing beside the Great One. She went to bow, only to find a strong hand on her shoulder. "Now, we'll have none of that, my little one." Zephyr's voice chided her, before he turned to the remaining townsfolk. "None of you are mine. Go out and seek a life in the world." He spoke to them. When Zephyr turned to leave, he kept his hand on her shoulder, guiding her out of the village which had been her home for all her life. Almost as soon as they passed the village gates, the combination of the exhaustion of the day and the shock which had occurred overtook her, and Barb did the only sensible thing she could. She fainted.


	2. Chapter 2: Rose and Thomas

**Chapter 2: Rose and Thomas**

Slowly, Barb became aware of sunlight which was practically in her eyes, and the sounds of birdsong around her. She'd had the most wonderful dream the night before, that she had been chosen by one of the Great Ones at the Choosing ceremony.

'The Choosing! That's today! I can't believe I…"Barb thought, sitting upright.

The sight that met her eyes was not the bare stone walls of her room in her foster-mothers home. Nor was it the rough wood or open space of one of the hunting lodges or deer-blinds she had set up in the forest for her hunting trips and as an escape from other people. The room that greeted her was far more luxurious than any room she had ever seen.

She was lying on a soft mattress with sheets of sky blue silk, and as she looked around she noted that the bed had curtains of the same material, with heavier hangings, presumably for winter time. The room looked big enough to hold the entirety of her foster family's house, with walls made of some light wood. The floor was of the same light wood, with a pale blue and white carpet under and around the bed.

But the greatest thing about this new room was the eastern wall, if one could really call it a wall. It was made entirely of glass and in the center was a pair of doors opening to a balcony. Those doors were open, letting in the birdsong and sunlight which had awakened her.

Barb stared in shock out of the window-wall. She'd never seen such a thing; all the glass in Northolt had been thick, bubbly stuff that let in light but no view. This glass let in a beautiful view, she was above a forest, and could see a city in the distance. Immediately, Barb ran out to the balcony, and was entranced by the view.

A short time later, Barb heard the door open. She turned, and felt a shock; Zephyr, the Lord of the Skies, was there. She went to bow to him, but his voice stopped her.

"We've had this conversation, my dear. I'll have none of that formality from you." He chided gently. Barb blushed slightly, remembering. "After you…lost consciousness…I brought you back to the capital. Luckily, it was the end of my round!" he continued.

"So, it was real" she murmured, mostly to herself. She really had been chosen by the Lord of the Skies as his own, so this must be the Great Ones' palace outside the capital city.

"Yes, it was. Now come, it is time for you to meet your partner and your peers." Zephyr stated, good humor still in his voice.

Barb followed Zephyr down a spiraling staircase taller than any stair she had ever seen. The tallest building in Northolt, the inn, had only had three stories, and the highest tree she had climbed had not been much taller. Her room had to be at least twice that. It should have made her dizzy, or nervous, but Barb had always loved high places.

Once on the ground floor, Zephyr led her through a maze of hallways, before she found herself following him right out of the palace. He led her into the forest.

"Do you know how to whistle?" Zephyr asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Yes" Barb replied, unsure of the reasoning behind the question.

"Do so. It will let your partner know you are ready for her."

Barb whistled, and heard wingbeats above. She looked up just as her partner, whatever it was, came in for a landing. Once the dust settled, Barb was faced with a shock which exceeded all she had had before.

There, in front of her, was a dragon. A dragon the color of the cloudless sky at midsummer. Barb could not believe it. If the higher elemental creatures had been thought of as fairy tales in Northolt, dragons were purest legend. It was said that only the four Great Ones and the High King were partnered with dragons. Slowly, Barb reached out to the beautiful creature, half-entranced.

_I am Skye,_ the thought sounded in Barb's mind, sent along the bond that formed between mage and familiar as soon as they touched. Barb could tell it wasn't her own thought, for it was unmistakably male. _And you are mine._ Skye continued. Barb just caressed her new partner, still too shocked to think straight.

After what felt like hours, but still too soon, Zephyr's voice pierced the trance Barb was in with her new partner. "I know you don't want to leave him, but you have to come in now," he said. "It's time for you to meet the other heirs."

"H…heirs?" Barb asked, confusion clear in her voice.

"Yes, heirs. What did you think you had been chosen for, child?" Zephyr's asked, a bit amused.

"I…I…I guess I didn't really know. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Northolt, I guess I'm still having trouble realizing this is real," Barb responded, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, my dear one, this is no tale. I have chosen you as my heir. I intend to retire soon, as do the other three Great Ones and the current High King. So, each of us has found a child of the age of choosing with unusual strength to take our place as the advisors and protectors of this kingdom." Zephyr told her.

With that speech, he led her to the dining room for breakfast. When they got there, it was clear they were interrupting the two people at the table. Barb felt her cheeks grow hot as she witnessed them. A girl with bright red hair in a red dress sat on the lap of a boy with fair hair in shades of dark blue, facing him and attached at the lips. Her hands had slid under his shirt, his held her in place, one at the small of her back and the other at the back of her neck.

Zephyr cleared his throat pointedly to catch the two's attention. "Rose, Thomas, that is hardly the way for a young man and young lady of your station to act in public. Do we need to start setting you two a chaperone?" he asked, humor in his voice.

"Do we really need another person to shock, Zephyr?" the girl called Rose asked impudently, still quite comfortable in Thomas's lap.

"The point of the chaperone would be to keep the two of us from shocking behaviors, my lovely vixen." Thomas said to her with a smile.

"Oh, well, that's doomed to fail." Rose replied, chuckling slightly. "And it looks like your little tagalong finally woke up," she continued, turning to look at Barb. With that, she slid from Thomas's lap and walked up to Barb. "Well, as Zephyr said, I'm Rose and this is Thomas. I'm Lady Fiametta's heir, he's Lady Morgan's. Richard, Lord Cephas's heir, is out and about today, you'll probably meet him at dinner." She said, smiling at Barb. With a slight smile, Zephyr left the three youths to get to know one another.

"Uhm…hi. I'm Barbara of Northolt, call me Barb." Barb replied, somewhat overwhelmed by the friendly flood from the other girl.

"Drop the 'of Northolt', Barb" Thomas replied with a slight smile. "As of now, you're of the Capital, and an Heir to the Great Ones, same as the rest of us." He rose, coming to stand behind Rose. "Any ties you had before are dissolved," he continued.

"That might take some getting used to," Barb replied.

"Probably. It took him nearly a month to stop including his former title," Rose said with a grin. "Me, I'm not from anywhere in particular, so I didn't have much trouble with it."

"T..t..title?" Barb said, shock coming over her.

"Don't worry about it." Thomas reassured her. "Once we have been chosen, we all have the same role and style. As for you," he continued, turning to Rose, "stop trying to overwhelm our new friend. She's still new at this, we should wait until she has her feet under her before upsetting her too much."

"Aww, but where's the fun in that?" Rose asked, teasing grin in place.

"So, uhm, I take it I'm the last one to be chosen?" Barb asked, trying to get the conversation back to something a little less uncomfortable.

"Yep." Rose replied. "My gifts started waking up young, which caught Fia's attention. Thomas is from the capital, so he got found early too. You know, here in the capital the Choosing's an annual thing, not like out in the little towns and villages." Barb's eyes widened at the thought of the Choosing occurring every year. In Northolt, the Great Ones only came by once every five years. "And Richard's been here a year. He's a village kid, like you, but from somewhere in the south."

"So, what, do they divide the kingdom or something? Like go south one year and north the next?" Barb asked, trying to make sense of it.

"Exactly," Thomas replied. "Each year, they go in a different direction, with the fifth year going to the central districts. That way, the Great Ones are only out for a couple of weeks per round. If they had to do the whole kingdom, that would be a whole season of just the Choosing round, no other work being done."

"Oh. I guess I never really thought about it." Barb replied.

"Well, most don't. We only know about it because we've been learning this kind of thing for a while." Rose said with a friendly smile. "You'll get used to it, when we have lessons. They'll be starting up tomorrow. Today you get to just get to know us and spend time with your partner," she continued. "Come on and join us for breakfast," Rose said. Barb sat down, and servants brought food, "after we eat, Thomas and I can show you around." Barb, Rose, and Thomas began to eat.


End file.
